Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Kansas 88, Long Beach State 80: Riding an impressive performance from their front court -- Thomas Robinson had 26 points and 11 boards while Jeff Withey finished with 13 points, 13 boards and nine blocks -- Kansas built a first half lead that ballooned to as much as 19 points. But the front court wasn't what Bill Self was concerned with after the game. His offense was, as his Jayhawk team, which has struggled with turnovers all season long, committed 22 on the night. They were at their worst down the stretch. TyShawn Taylor, who didn't start the game because of a knee injury he suffered in practice, and Elijah Johnson combined for zero assists and six turnovers in the second half as LBSU scored 21 of their final 24 points off of turnovers, whittling the Jayhawk lead to as little as four late in the second half."That was about as miserable of a performance in the last 10 minutes of a game as I've ever seen," Self said. "You can look up and down the lineup and there is just nobody that values the ball at all. That was a game we had won several times, but our inability to think, pass, catch or execute at all in late-game situations was the reason the game was close late."

No. 20 Memphis 71, Miami FL 54: The Tigers overcame a poor shooting night and an early, 7-0 deficit to knock off a feisty Miami team on the road. Will Barton finished with career-highs of 27 points and 14 boards as Memphis pulled away in the second half. The biggest issue for the Tigers right now seems to be getting consistency out of their sophomore point guard Joe Jackson. And while its true that he only shot 1-7 from the floor and handed out just three assists, the most important stat may be that he didn't turn the ball over. There are going to be times when Memphis needs a big game out of Jackson, but with the amount of talent on the Memphis roster, there will be nights where defense and facilitating the Tiger offense is Jackson's main priority. In addition to the turnover-free game, Jackson helped hold Durand Scott and Malcom Grant to just 15 points on 6-21 shooting.

No. 3 Syracuse 62, Marshall 56: The Orange used a 22-6 run in the first half to open up a big lead on Marshall and hung on late as a flurry of buckets late made this game more interesting that it was throughout. Syracuse forced a number of turnovers and took advantage in transition in the first half. If there was a red flag here for Syracuse, it was on the glass. The Orange are one of the biggest teams in the country, and Marshall got 20 offensive rebounds on the game.

Virginia 68, George Mason 48: The Cavs opened up a 33-22 lead at the break and pushed that advantage to 45-26 in the opening minutes of the second half. Sammy Zeglinski led the 'Hoos with 18 points. Mason simply didn't have an answer for Virginia's tough defense. The Cavs have now held nine straight opponents under 58 points.

Northern Iowa 80, Iowa 60: What makes this final score all the more impressive is that UNI was down 10-0 early in the first half.

The rest of the top 25

No. 6 North Carolina 97, Evansville 48: The Tar Heels bounced back from three straight sub-par performances by running all over a solid Evansville team. The Purple Aces never had a chance, as they found themselves down 52-22 at the half.

No. 14 Pitt 97, VMI 70: The Panthers won their sixth straight game since losing to LBSU as they rode 19 points, 14 boards and five assists from Nasir Robinson.

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